James Chase - The World in My Pocket

The three men at the table watched. Bleck looked worried. He knew Kitson’s temper was unreliable. Gypo was frowning. Morgan still grinned.

‘You and nobody else talks to me that way!’ Kitson said as he confronted the girl.

They made an incongruous couple. Her head scarcely reached to the top of his shoulder, and standing in front of her, he seemed at least three times as broad as she was.

She looked at him, her expression still scornful.

‘Then in case you didn’t hear, I’ll repeat what I said,’ she said quietly. ‘Run away, powder puff. We can handle this without your help.’

Kitson made a low growling noise and he lifted his hand, threateningly.

‘Go ahead and hit me,’ the girl said. ‘I’m not scared of getting hurt!’

Morgan laughed.

Kitson dropped his hand and stepped back. He muttered under his breath and then started for the door.

‘Kitson!’ Morgan’s voice rapped out. ‘Come back here and sit down! We’ve got to vote. You walk out now, and you’re through with this outfit for good!’

Kitson hesitated, then turning slowly, his face confused and sullen, he walked back to the table and sat down.

Morgan looked at Gypo.

‘Another slip.’

Gypo took out his notebook and cut another slip of paper.

Bleck said, ‘Before we vote, Frank, I want to know more about this job. How does she get mixed up in it?’ He jerked his thumb towards Ginny.

‘For the past five months I’ve been trying to figure out how to knock over this truck,’ Morgan said, ‘and I couldn’t figure an angle. Three nights ago, she came to me and dropped the whole thing, sewn up, into my lap. It’s her idea, that’s why it’s a five-way split. She’s worked out all the angles, and I’m satisfied her plan will work.’

Bleck looked at the girl.

‘And where do you come from, baby?’ he asked. ‘What put the idea into your pretty head?’

The girl opened her cheap, shabby bag and took out a pack of cigarettes and a book of paper matches. She lit a cigarette while she regarded Bleck, her gaze cool and impersonal.

‘It’s no business of yours nor anyone else’s where I come from,’ she said curtly. ‘I thought up the idea because I want the money. While we’re on the subject, I don’t like being called baby, so drop it, will you?’

Bleck grinned. He admired a woman with spirit.

‘Sure, I’ll drop it. What made you pick on this outfit to help you with a job as big as this one?’

She pointed to Gypo.

‘Because of him. I asked around. They said he’s the best man with a lock in the district and that’s what’s needed for this job. They said you had a lot of nerve, that Morgan had a flair for organization and Kitson was the best getaway driver on the coast.’

Gypo was smiling now. He thrived on flattery. The girl is dead right, he thought. There is no better man in the lock business.

Kitson had lost his sullen expression. He now looked embarrassed, and he kept his eyes down, staring at the wet ring on the table made by his whisky glass.

‘They said? Who said?’ Bleck asked.

‘That’s neither here nor there. We’re wasting time,’ the girl said. ‘I asked around because I had to be sure I was coming to the right outfit, but it seems I could have made a mistake. If I have, then I’ll try elsewhere.’

Bleck lit a cigarette while he stared at her.

‘Well, you’ve certainly picked the toughest end of the job if you’re the one who’s going to lie in the road. Was that your idea?’

‘Of course.’

‘Let’s look at what you are taking on. You’ll be lying in the middle of the road. You’ll have a gun under you. When the guard comes up to you you’ll stick the gun in his face, correct?’

She nodded.

‘It could be rugged,’ Bleck said. ‘Two things could happen: either the guard tosses up his hands and quits or else he won’t take you seriously and makes a grab at your gun. From what I hear about this guy, he won’t give up. He’ll make a grab at your gun. Then what?’

The girl let smoke drift down her nostrils.

‘This is a million dollar take,’ she said in a cold, expressionless voice. ‘If he makes a grab at the gun, he’ll get shot.’

Gypo took out his handkerchief and wiped his face. The tip of his tongue moved over his lips as he looked uneasily at Morgan and then at Kitson.

‘This is the big one,’ Morgan said. ‘You’ve got to face up to it, guys. If you don’t like it, you can always quit.’

Bleck was studying the girl.

She’s no bluffer, he was thinking. Sweet Pete! She’s as hard as a diamond. She’ll kill the guy if he starts anything. With any luck, he’ll see it in her eyes when she shoves the heater in his face. If he does, he won’t make a move. If I were he, and found myself looking into a gun held by her, I know damn well I’d stop breathing let alone make any sudden move.

‘Okay. I just want to know which way we’re heading,’ he said, reaching for a cigarette and tapping it on the table. ‘Let’s have the rest of the plan.’

Morgan shook his head.

‘We don’t get the rest of it until we vote,’ he said. ‘That’s the arrangement. She tells me she’s taken care of all the details and ironed out all the snags. What I’ve told you just now is a sample of it. If we agree to work with her then we hear the rest of it, but if we don’t want the job, then she’s free to peddle it elsewhere. That’s fair enough. What do you say?’

‘But has she really ironed out all the snags?’ Bleck asked. ‘It seems to me there’re a hell of a lot of them. We’ve stopped the truck and we’ve fixed the driver and the guard. That in itself is something we didn’t think possible. But from what you tell me the truck is in continuous radio communication with the Agency. As soon as the truck goes off the air, a search for it will be started. They know where to look for it, and what’s more, not only the cops will come a-hunting, but the army as well, and that means hundreds of men, aircraft and cars. They have only ninety-three miles of road to check. An aircraft can cover that in a few minutes. The truck will stand out on any road like a boil on the back of your neck. We will have less than twenty minutes to get it out of sight. It might be possible if we didn’t have to stop the truck at the bottleneck. Beyond there and the other side of it is as bare of cover as the back of my hand. We’ll have to travel twenty-five miles to reach any good cover and they’ll know it and that’s where they’ll look for us. I can’t see how we can hope to stop the truck, bust it open, get the money and get away before the cops and the Army arrive.’

Morgan shrugged.

‘I thought that too.’ He nodded at the girl. ‘She says she has taken care of that angle.’

Bleck looked at Ginny.

‘Is that a fact? You really know the answer to that one?’

‘Yes,’ she said in her cold, expressionless voice. ‘That’s the hardest part. I’ve taken care of it.’

She spoke with such assurance that even Kitson, who was listening cynically, had a sudden feeling that she might swing this job.

Bleck spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

‘Okay, I’ll take your word for it, but you’ve certainly dreamed up a miracle. There still remain two more problems. The first is when we’ve stopped the truck what’s to prevent other traffic coming up on us just when we’re fixing the guards? This road isn’t overused, but there is traffic on it. We could be surprised.’

The girl’s face became wooden and her eyes bored as she leaned back in her chair, her scarlet shirt tightening across her full, provocative breasts.

‘That’s an easy one, isn’t it? There are two roads, both linking up with Highway 10. All we have to do is to put a diversion sign at the bottom of the road after the truck has passed and the rest of the traffic will use the other road. What’s so hard about that?’